Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/316

 moment of capture was irresistible; one escaped condemnation; the other eleven were deprived of the shelter of the Portuguese flag and condemned in the Spanish court. Not one of the whole number, however, was really Portuguese: four were Brazilian, and the remaining twenty-six undoubtedly Spanish. Of the eleven condemned in the Spanish court, only one had embarked any slaves previous to her capture; and it was in virtue of the "equipment clause" in the Clarendon treaty with Spain that they were subject to be condemned.

Joint stock companies were organized at Havana and Brazil, with heavy capitals, for the purpose of carrying on the slave-trade. Two of the above vessels belonged to one of these companies, the head-quarters of which were at Pernambuco. From papers found on board one of the vessels, it appeared that the company was composed of twenty members, and the capital invested, $80,000; and that they intended to establish a slave factory in the river Benin, and endeavor to secure a monopoly of the trade with the native princes.

The small number of slavers captured in proportion to the number engaged in the trade, may be accounted for from the fact that the cruisers were engaged in the hopeless task of blockading and watching 8000 miles of coast: — 3000 miles of the African continent, embracing those portions only from whence slaves were obtained, and 5000 miles may be estimated for the shores of Brazil, Cuba, and Porto Rico.

From the papers and letters of instruction which occasionally fell into the hands of the captors, some curious facts are obtained. One treasurer of a company in Brazil writes to his agent on the coast, that among his stock in trade, to be sure at all times to have plenty of rum and tobacco, and to estimate all his goods at the highest possible prices; and that as all savages have respect for some kind of religion, the agent must be sure to keep up the exercise of some external forms, which would give a desirable "moral force" to the establishment! The natives were to be treated with the utmost civility, but not the slightest confidence was to be placed in them. Intoxication was to be carefully guarded against by the servants of the company, but the natives were to be encouraged in it. All sorts of contrivances were resorted to in order to cheat the poor negroes. English calico was cut up the middle in order to double its length, and each piece of stripe, or handkerchief, was cut across, making two pieces; the rum was adulterated, and the tobacco packed expressly for deception. From the intercepted correspondence we also gather some particulars in regard to the mortality of the trade. The Salome had landed a cargo of 253 slaves near Matanzas, of whom seven had died soon after they were landed, and twenty-seven others were sick; seventy-four others had perished during the voyage, "so that we shall with difficulty," the owners pathetically observe to their agent in Africa, "get back the cost of our enterprise." The captain of another vessel writes back to the agent, "There were about 100 of those embarked at your port infected with the putrid fever; all our exertions could not stop the mortality, so that only one half have been saved of the number that ought to have been yielded by our abundant and well assorted